Oh guys! This piece… I’ve been lovingly, carefully working on it for months. I think I’ve placed a lot of importance on it and I just wasn’t sure I was going to be able to achieve what I had pictured in my mind. But I finally feel like I have it at a point where I’m ready to share it with you… and this will be the first Your Story piece that I’m sharing the final product of on the journal.

So Rachel is one of my beautiful friends I met at Ren. I had been wanting to photograph her for a while. She’s so cute and spunky, full of energy and life. And I just really wanted to capture the essence of who she was in photographs (which you can see here). But I also really wanted to do something with her for a fine art piece. It took me a while before the idea for this piece finally came to me. Honestly, it came because of all the conversations I’ve been having with people about racism.

I have a lot of thoughts about this topic and I know there are probably going to be some people who don’t understand my perspective. But I’m going to try and do my best to explain where I’m coming from. So let me start by saying this… I’m a white, middle-class woman, who attended private school as a kid. So clearly, I have no personal experience with what it’s like to be black, and I honestly grew up with very little interaction with kids who were black. But a lot has changed since then and my eyes and mind have been opened to the things I previously didn’t see.

As a hopeful adoptive parent, there is a very good possibility that our future son or daughter may not have the same skin color as us. And I think that’s wonderful, but I’d be incredibly naive to not consider how his or her life might be different than ours simply because of the color of their skin. Obviously, I want to be the absolute best parent I can be to our child & give them the best start I can… I listened to interviews and read articles from African-Americans trying to better understand their perspective. I also listened to a number of African-Americans adopted by white families to try and glean what was or wasn’t helpful for them growing up. But I think the most beneficial thing I’ve done is talk with my black friends… or rather listen to them. And I’m so SO grateful for those who felt comfortable enough to share openly and honestly with me about their own experiences.

And Rachel is one of those people. She shared some real truths with me, stories from her life. I don’t feel that it’s my place to share her experiences, but I can tell you that my heart hurts for her experiences as both a child and an adult. And there’s this (BIG) part of my brain that has such a hard time wrapping itself around the racism she experienced. I just don’t understand. We’re both humans. We breathe the same air. We both want to love and be loved. We both have goals and dreams and motivation. Why? Why should anyone be treated differently just because of the color of their skin?

So the piece… this piece bears all of this in mind. This is me listening and trying to do something to acknowledge a reality that isn’t my own. I honestly don’t have the words… because this isn’t my story. So I asked Rachel to share her thoughts:

“This image is so true to the black experience. Even when the world is reaching/pulling at us, and stealing from our culture we must maintain our sense of self and knowing. More often than I’d ever care to happen my hair is being involuntarily touched and I’m being questioned about the inner workings of my skin color, ethnic background, and social/political stances. Even though I feel invaded and I feel like an unknown species under the microscope I remain calm because whether some is for or against it, my kinky hair and brown skin are powerful. I can’t quite put into words exactly what I feel from this project, but I’m so appreciative of you taking the time to listen and seeking to understand first. Some might find this photo offensive, but it might be a good idea for them to ask themselves why they’re offended. Not everything is so black and white, no pun intended. There are two sides to every story and you can’t just stop at the cover, you have to actually open up the book and read the pages.”

You can check out the timelapse of this video below…

And here’s the completed piece. A huge thank you to Rachel for being such an amazing model as well as Brittany who stood in for Rachel for the arm work and my brother Jeremy to being the male arms in the image.

If you have a story… I would love to work with you to create a custom piece of artwork to share your story!